Online Situation Analysis workshop was organized on September 28th, 2020 by Public Institution Paklenica National Park and moderated by external experts. Faced with the resulting pandemic situation, the workshop had to be held remotely, via the Zoom application. The methodology of implementation of the workshop was prescribed and it was Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation.
The workshop started with a short introduction of each participant which was followed by the presentation about the BEECH POWER project and the presentation about methodology Open Standards for the practice of Conservation, the scope of the workshop. The participants were also familiarized with the site features and current management status. The stakeholders were divided into two groups of their choice, each group had its own moderator. The first group discussed the state of the WH area and what is being done well in conservation, and what can be done better. The second group discussed the topic: What are the new opportunities and how to take advantage of them and what are the next steps.
The results of the first group discussions were general agreement on the current level of protection of UNESCO WH sites in the NP which was rated satisfactory due to the fact that the sites are located within a national park, where according to the Nature Protection Act, any economic activity and forest exploitation is prohibited. The management regime of the Park (zoning) significantly contributes to the preservation of naturalness and protection of the site, and the zoning is currently being restored in order to raise the protection to an even higher level.
The common conclusions of the second group were: the need to educate visitors and all interested parties about localities, meaning and behavior, the need to include children and youth that can be included in various educational programs, the need to educate visitors and all interested, taking advantage of additional better promotions, both for the whole park and for localities, listing provides additional tools for the protection of the whole area and localities, in particular, establishing better communication and cooperation with a wider range of stakeholders, establishing a partnership council is a good opportunity.
The results of the workshop in Croatia will complete the results from similar workshops on Situation Analysis held in Germany and Slovenia. Summarized in the joint report, they will be used as a starting point for the upcoming workshops in Strategy development.
